Twelve.0 Construction Costs Revealed!

Hello Everyone!

We hope you found value in the previous newsletter on Vetting a Contractor but If you missed it, we have uploaded it to our Blog found here!

We're answering the question that everyone has been asking... "How much can I expect to spend on the construction of my kit?". Fortunately, we are here to break down the costs that we have received from subcontractors to assist in your budgeting. We will be reviewing our Flagship Twelve.0 kit for this review as we are currently preparing to build a Twelve.0 model home which will be available for tours shortly!

So…. let's get down to the brass tax!

1. Permits and Development fees - Yes, you need to pay them, no we don't know how much they are. These fees vary depending on the municipality you are planning to build in. We suggest reaching out to the Municipality and asking for a copy of the permit and development fee schedule.

2. Site Preparation - Every Trillium kit requires the topsoil and all other organic material (leaves, sticks, etc.) to be stripped where the foundation will be placed. The amount of fill you will require will depend on how much grade change your lot has. It's common for a project to take between 5 and 25 loads of fill depending on the condition of our site and how much organics are removed. In our area, a load of sand fill is approximately $250 delivered.

3. Plumbing - The plumbing costs received are between $10,000 and $21,000 depending on the scope of work. The $10,000 range allows you to pick and provide your own fixtures for the plumber to install. Whereas the plumber will be supplying and installing all the fixtures in the $21,000 range.

4. Final grading - Once the rough grading and the plumbing rough-in's are complete (Plumbing rough-in video), you will require a minimum 6” of granular “clear stone” to be spread and levelled. This is equivalent to two tandem dump truck loads for the top layer at approximately $400 per load.

5. Floating Slab Installation - The pre-engineered floating slab kit that is included in our package is incredibly easy to install, but some choose to have a professional install it for them. The pricing for a contractor to construct the slab kit including placing the insulation, supplying the concrete, and finishing the concrete will be approximately $9,600.

6. Steel Structure Installation - The installation of the steel structure is something a lot of our customers want to do themselves. If you are unable or do not feel confident to complete this yourself and need to hire a professional, you can expect to pay approximately $24,000 to have the structure erected with the siding, roofing, windows, doors, trims, gutters, and downspouts installed.

7. Spray Foam Insulation - Spray foam prices are roughly $1.25 per square foot per inch. Currently, the minimum code requirements for vaulted ceilings in Ontario are R-20 for walls and R-31 for ceilings. This equates to approximately $7,500 for the ceilings and $4,875 for the walls.

8. Interior Framing - Once the structure is erected and the spray foam insulation is placed, it's time to frame out the inside of the home. The cost of the wood studs as well as installation will be approximately $15,000.

9. Electrical - We have received several quotes on this ranging between $15,000 and $20,000 depending on certain requests such as pot lights, generators, solar, and more. The servicing from the road or well and septic system will be an added expense that will need to be confirmed with the Municipality or a well and septic installer in your area.

10. Drywall - The Trillium TWELVE.0 will require approximately 5,000 square feet of drywall. You can expect to pay between $1.80 and $3.50 per square foot to have someone supply and install the drywall. This fee includes taping the seams, plastering and sanding. Using midrange pricing the drywall should cost approximately $13,500.

11. Mechanical - On our website you have the option to upgrade from a conventional forced air heating and air conditioning system with HRV to a hydronic heated floor system and utilize a ductless mini-split with modular HRV system. The cost for the conventional system is approximately $16,500 and this covers the furnace, air conditioning, HRV unit and ductwork. The combination boiler option (capable of both heating your floors as well as giving you hot water on demand) with modular HRV system and ductless air conditioning system will cost approximately $24,000 not including the cost of the hydronic preparation package (available on our website).

12. Trim - the entire trim package for a TWELVE.0 can be had for very little money. A mid-range trim package is going to cost approximately $3,000 for the entire home.

13. Paint - We are sure that most of our customers are going to be painting themselves, but here are the associated costs. You're going to need to budget approximately $1,500 for paint and supplies, or be prepared to pay for a professional painter at approximately $6,000 to complete the job for you.

14. Kitchen - This can be as custom or as simple as you want. You can obtain quotes from custom kitchen cabinet makers or price out a kitchen from Ikea and assemble it yourself. For a kitchen in the Twelve.0 you can expect to pay between $5,000 (from Ikea) and $15,000 for a custom kitchen. In addition to the kitchen cabinets, you will need countertops. Again, you could install a higher end granite, quartz or marble or a simple laminate countertop and could expect to pay between $500 and $3,500. 

Our intentions when designing our kits was to provide our customers with a turn key home design for under $200 per square foot and as you can see, we have surpassed this. The total value can be greatly reduced depending on how much you can complete yourself, and as an example we are currently completing a live cost analysis on a Twelve.0 and expect it to come in under $150 per square foot or under $180,000. That’s right, a full home build with construction costs under $200,000, in the most expensive building era in history!

Thanks for sticking with us and our boring newsletters so far. Next week we are going to be discussing what's included "in-the-box" and how the process from ordering your kit to the delivery is completed.

-- Eric & Kyle